"Keep him here tonight, and fix him to a chair with a rope later." Simon looked at the tax collector who was firmly tied and stood up.
"Master, aren't you going to leave him a guard?" The fat man looked at Simon doubtfully.
Simon scratched his head and searched his mind for the memory of the previous owner of this body.
Although this tax collector was just the second son of a little-known knight who came to work as a servant to the baron and later took charge of the tax collection in Verde Village, in any case, he had aristocratic blood.
If his current mental state was not too dangerous, the most he could do was lock the door of the counting house, let alone tie him up.
"Then let's leave one person to keep vigil for him tonight. Otherwise, when he is thirsty, no one will give him water, and when he is hungry, no one will give him food. If he has an internal crisis, he will have to deal with it. Sternburg, he is going to bite me back and say that I abused him." Simon looked at the fat man who was fixing the tax collector to the chair at this time. "It's your job tonight, fat man, you come and watch him. "
"Okay, Master."
"Dear Sir Simon, then I will interrogate this militia member Keynes tonight." The village chief looked at Simon at this time. The village chief is the only literate person in the village. If Simon wants to write a letter about today's events and accuse the tax collector in it and submit it to his father, he cannot do without the ghostwriting of the village chief.
Only then did Simon realize that he had become illiterate. In aristocratic families, except for the aristocratic children who were sent to monasteries to become monks, where they would systematically learn writing, the other children, apart from training and playing knight games every day, basically had nothing to do with writing.
If Simon could still read modern English, he would be dead from early medieval Latin.
"Then leave it to you, village chief." Simon nodded and walked out the door. The villagers outside have not dispersed yet, chattering among themselves.
The windows of the counting house were crowded with villagers watching the excitement. They all wanted to see the embarrassment of the normally aloof tax collector when he fell from power.
"Master Simon," Elsa arrived at the door of the tent who didn't know when and looked at Simon with a smile, "The hunting mansion has been cleaned for you. I will take you there now!"
"Let's go to your house first and lead the two horses at the door together."
Seeing Simon and Elsa walking away holding torches, the villagers began to change the topic of discussion.
"Hey, old Baoch, what do you think of the new lord?" A short farmer asked an older farmer next to him.
"I don't know. Although the nobles are all greedy and only know how to exploit our vampires, this young lord named Simon seems to be a little different." The old farmer squinted his eyes and thought.
"Interesting, does that mean we can secretly catch some hares and fish in the forest or river for the tooth festival? Anyway, this guy seems to be easy to talk to. If he is caught, he probably won't punish us as severely as other lords. ." said a cunning little farmer.
In this era, the rivers and forests in the territory and the products within them belonged to the lord, and hunting or fishing without permission by the territorial residents would be severely punished.
"Hey, short Kohler, you have so many clever ideas, aren't you afraid of being caught by the vicious fat attendant next to the new lord? He doesn't look easy to talk to." A farmer patted the short and cunning farmer.
"Are you scared? How do you know if you don't try? Let's stay hidden and don't let them find out." Kohler, the dwarf, said nonchalantly, his bright eyes swirling, not knowing what he was planning. .
"Let's wait and see for a while. If this Lord Simon is incompetent and loves to exploit, and can't stop the Vikings from plundering in the end, then let's go to hell," said Old Bauch, who seemed to be among this group of farmers. With some prestige, "It's getting late, everyone, let's disperse."
People talked and laughed and walked back to their cabins in twos and threes.
…
Simon and Elsa led the horses up the mountain road and talked all the way.
The hunting house is built on a small hill beside the village, overlooking the entire Verde village.
"This is it!" In front of Elsa and Simon was a simple wooden house. Different from the villagers' houses, this house looked larger and cleaner from the outside.
"Thank you Elsa, that's it." Simon looked at this cute girl and smiled slightly.
"Good night, my lord." Elsa returned a sweet smile to Simon, held the torch, turned around and walked towards the foot of the hill.
Simon opened the heavy wooden door of the villa, and the smell that came to him was not only a faint smell of old urine and feces, but also a smell of mold. There was not that many strange odors, which was barely acceptable.
The house is paved with wooden floors, and there is a burning fireplace on the left hand side of the door, exuding warmth.
Next to the fireplace was a bed that was different from those of ordinary people. It seemed to have pillows and mattresses made of shabby linen. A wooden board supported the bottom, and four polished stones of similar heights were cushioned at the four corners under the wooden board.
There is a sturdy-looking locked cabinet next to the bed, which is used to store more valuable possessions.
There was a simple hay cot on the floor against the wall on one side of the fireplace, apparently for his father's attendants to sleep on.
As soon as you enter the house, there is a hunting bow without string hanging on the wall facing the door. There is also a "rope" hanging on the wall, which seems to be the bow string. Beneath the bowstring is a wooden table and a chair with a back cushion upholstered in animal skins. There is also a large water tank made of wood on one side of the wooden table.
There is a simple "toilet" on the right hand side. It is just a convex space made on the wall of the house, and then a chair-like toilet is placed underneath. A round hole is dug in the center of the "chair" for excretion. There is also a handful of hay to wipe your butt on one side.
All the windows in the entire house were covered with treated animal skins at this time. These should be simple curtains to block the wind.
"This cheap old man has thought carefully. This house will indeed be more comfortable to live in than an ordinary house." Simon thought, inserting the torch in his hand on the torch stand outside the door, and carrying it from the trailer behind the pack horse. Unload your luggage, put it away after entering the door, and then untie the fixed animal skin curtain above the door and lower it.
The fire in the fireplace, which had been dancing a joyful dance in the house, calmed down.
Simon took off the dagger and long sword from his waist, took off his robe and peaked Norman helmet, and put them in the cabinet. He took off his wet deerskin boots and placed them by the fireplace to bake, then lay down directly on the bed. Hearing the creaking sound of the mattress, he knew that the linen cover inside was filled with hay.
Simon soon fell asleep.
…
Early the next morning, Simon was awakened by a rooster crowing in the woods behind the house.
Drowsily, Simon actually wanted to brush his teeth. After walking around the house, I discovered that there were no similar toiletries. Simon recalled his previous memories. When he was in Dorstenberg, he would brush his teeth with a tooth powder made of cuttlefish powder and some mixed spices. But in this hunting mansion, it is impossible to have these luxurious tooth powders.
At this time, Simon felt itchy and discovered that there were many fleas on his bed and body.
After simply scooping a cup of water from the water tank with a wooden cup to rinse his mouth, Simon raised the animal skin curtains to ventilate the house, then put on his equipment, locked the door, and walked towards the village of Verde under the hills.
At this time, there was already a farmer in the distance carrying a wooden plow and walking towards the farmland with bare feet. In the early morning, dewdrops were still hanging on the grass and leaves on one side, and a thin mist shrouded the Rhine River in the distance. The woods on the edge of the village are filled with the chirping of various birds, and everything is so beautiful under the rising sun.
Simon came to the village chief's house and knocked on the door. The village chief seemed to have just gotten up and opened the door for Simon with his own hands.
"Good morning, village chief, is there any result from last night's interrogation?" Simon asked with a smile.
"Oh! After we escorted the Cairns boy to the woodshed, he quickly recruited us. He said that they arrived near the village of Verde that night, but the three of them bypassed the drowsy people while everyone was sleeping. The night watchman quietly moved most of the supplies behind a secret door in the basement of the counting house," the village chief said vividly with a red face, "I took someone to go to the counting house immediately, and sure enough, they found it in the basement. That part of the missing grain, when I came out, the face of the tax collector Fox who was tied to the chair was gray, haha!"
"Now that the evidence is sufficient, I will ask the village chief to ghostwrite a letter to my father for me later." Simon also smiled. The evidence in their hands now is enough to convict the tax collector of corruption.
"By the way, bring this with you when the time comes." Simon said, taking off the silver cross pendant from his neck and handing it to the village chief.
Now Simon does not have the ring to prove his identity and can stamp his heraldry seal on the sealing wax, so he can only use his personal token as proof.
"Okay sir, after I finish writing the letter for you, I will personally take a few young men from the village to escort the two of them to Dorstenburg, testify to the Baron, and explain in detail what happened." The village chief Take Simon's pendant.
Simon nodded, turned around and walked towards the counting house.
Some villagers passing by greeted Simon one by one. Whether they were warm or cold, they kept saying "Good day, sir".
When Simon opened the door of the accounting room, he saw the fat man sleeping soundly on the table, and the tax collector Fox on the chair next to him was also sleeping with his head tilted.
"Fat man, wake up." Simon shook the sleeping fat man. The fat man rubbed his eyes that were stained with goo and looked at Simon.
"How were you last night?" Simon pulled up a chair and sat at the table.
"Master, everything is normal. This guy is quite calm. He only went to the toilet once and drank a little water."
"Very good. You go to the hunting house later and bring the pack horse pulling the trailer over, get the tax collector on it, then ride the horse to the woodshed, get the militiaman Keynes on top. The rest of the matter will be handed over to you. Just give it to the village chief, and he will lead people to escort them to Dorstenberg." Simon looked at the fat man's dark circles and felt a little distressed. "After you finish this, you can go to the bed in the hunting house and sleep. .”
After speaking, Simon gave the door key to the fat man. The fat man agreed and stood up and walked out the door.
At this time, Fox, the tax collector, also woke up, looking at Simon with a pair of gloomy eyes.
"Dear Lord Simon, do you think this can bring me down? In any case, that guy named Keynes is finished! But I..." the tax collector said, showing a sly smile, "used for my execution." The instrument of torture has not been made yet. Just wait, one day I will take revenge and make you spend the rest of your life regretting what you did last night!"
"Haha, you've already come to this point and you're still being so stubborn." Simon sneered, not caring at all.
The flame in the fireplace in the tent had long been extinguished, and the large temperature difference between indoors and outdoors made the tent dark and humid. Simon walked out of the tent without looking back, bathing in the warm morning sun, leaving Fox alone in the house.
